booboisie was our Word of the Day on 07/16/2013. Hear the podcast!

Did You Know?

Journalist and critic H. L. Mencken is often credited with coining booboisie, a blend of boob, as it refers to someone who cares too much about things and too little about ideas and art, and bourgeoisie, that French-origin term for the middle class. Mencken may have indeed coined the word, but it seems likely that he wasn't the word's only inventor. According to the 2006 Yale Book of Quotations, Mencken was quoted using booboisie in an August 1922 issue of The Dial before it appeared in any of his writings. But a February 22, 1922 Washington Post article opens with the following line: "A plot to mulct the 'booboisie' which might have been invented by an author of get-rich-quick fiction …." The booboisie, of course, couldn't care less.